If you leave Oregon, Illinois and head southwest on White Pines road you will soon intersect with South Ridge Road. Continuing south you will cross a small bridge over a railroad track. Twice a day the California Zephyr passes under the bridge, once on its 51 hour, 2,438 mile journey from Chicago to Emeryville, California, on San Francisco Bay and once on its return trip. The current Amtrack California Zephyr is the successor to the original train which began service in 1949. If your timing is right you too can claim that you met the Zephyr at the bridge.

Immediately after the bridge on the left is Mt. Zion Cemetery. Esther Reynolds and many of the people she loved are laid to rest there. Esther left us a great gift, her personal diary. This web site dedicated to her memory and to that diary of love. It is placed here for family and friends but also for anyone interested in life on a small Midwestern farm in 20th century America. The farm that Esther lived about a half of the 20th Century on was located further down South Ridge Road towards Grand Detour. You won’t find it there today. The small farm has been incorporated into a larger one. The house and barns were torn down. Not even the fruit trees lining the garden or the large oaks through which howled the bitter winter winds and whispered the warm summer breezes remain.

Probably none of the over 376,000 passengers who passed by Mt. Zion Cemetery on the Zephyr in 2012 knew Esther, and that is their very great loss. Perhaps reading her diary will help you get to know her better.